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Thursday, March 20, 2008

My Favorite Pasta Dish!

Linguine with tomatoes, basil and roasted garlic!

I know, I know...I just posted this last week but for me a recipe is sometimes like getting a simple song stuck in my head. I crave it and the flavors and this is one recipe that I absolutely love the way that that the flavors and the aromas all come together in a perfect summery blast! I know where most of you are summer is still a ways off and please don't try this with crappy tomatoes. It is truly disappointing then...exercise patience. It is so worth it!

Another reason though that I wanted to try this recipe is that I have been getting some great fresh garlic from my local U-Pick. It is not dry and papery on the outside but soft. Almost like an onion. I was very curious to see how it would roast up...Wonderfully I now know!!!

I also got my hands on some beautiful red scallions that I thought would go very nice with this pasta.

Archer Farms ( Target exclusive) has some really great pastas and spices. If you haven't checked out a Super Target give it a try. I don't generally do too much grocery shopping but I was out of oil and had to pick some things up anyway so I wandered over to the grocery part of the store. Man, was I ever blown away by what they had!!! The herbs and spices were incredible they had just about everything that you can imagine. Asian, Indian, Italian and all of the Spanish spices and herbs all together in one place!!! Huge array of organic as well as regular ones and at decent prices to boot! As I wandered deeper in I hit the pasta aisle. Incredible. I bought one bag and will be going back for more. This tastes every bit as good as the Italian pastsa that I get from my local Italian market!!! Next time you need something from Target do yourself a favor and go the estra distance to a Super Target. Well worth the trip!

Peel of most of the paper from around the garlic head. Slice off the pointy top of the garlic. This should expose all of the cloves a bit. Place in an oven proof pan (I use a pie plate). Top with 2 Tbsp of olive oil and coarse salt. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Allow to cool then remove the cloves and mash with a fork.

Dice the tomatoes (if the have a ton of seeds squeeze them out).

Add the garlic, basil, capers, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Let stand for at least 20 minutes.

Cook pasta.

Mix sauce with pasta and serve warm or at room temperature. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Update on the lizard - The freaking lizard from yesterday haunted me all yesterday and today. I live in a 2000+ SF home. How can he be everywhere??? Anyway the last time I saw him in the office he was looking a little pale and not moving quite as fast. So I was able to grab him and put him outside. Now we are both sooooo much happier!

10 comments:

Oh yum. I will definitely try this once we have fresh, local basil available again and not basil from Mexico... :-)Regarding that lizard who was "haunting you"...I'd say he was hunting you! lol (just to freak you out a bit more)But GOOD JOB catching him and putting him outside!! :-) :-)I do this with the spiders that break my "proximity rule" agreement (they can be any where in the house but not over my bed).

I'm always a bit of a sucker for those red scallions when I find them at a farm stand. We are still so many weeks away from farm fresh produce here in Rhode Island -- all I can do is drool at the thought of this recipe and those lovely tomatoes.

Yes Peter it is a no cook "sauce". I really reminds me of an Italian salsa.

Danni-You have to try this fresh. You guys should be getting some fresh stuff soon? I don't like spiders in my house either but then again we have some pretty mean spiders here!

Oh Lydia those scallions are so good. I used them with shrimp just tonight and they were incredible!

But Michelle just think when you are enjoying yours and posting all about it I will be baking in 100+ degree heat every single day and eating mealy tomatoes!

Hey Twinville-It is great and simple. The only thing that you really have to plan ahead is roasting the garlic and I have done this quickly by using higher heat and breaking the head apart into cloves.

I love pasta like this! My Dad used to call it pasta with salsa cruda (raw sauce). He grew all of our tomatoes and they were as sweet as sugar. We also like to add chunks of fresh mozzarella or cannellini beans for some protein.